"I spoke this morning with Tanel Tein (a member of the Eesti 200 parliamentary group and the lead sponsor of the bill) who will introduce an amendment to the Gambling Tax Act at today's Riigikogu sitting because it's the fastest way to correct the error by the end of February," said Annely Akkermann, chair of the Riigikogu Finance Committee.

"A separate bill will be submitted specifically to remove the unnecessary term 'skill games' from that section," she added.

Akkermann noted that Tanel Tein will submit the bill today and an extraordinary meeting of the Finance Committee is scheduled for tomorrow.

"Tomorrow, the Riigikogu board is expected to refer the bill to the Finance Committee for processing. And tomorrow, we will propose appointing a rapporteur from the lead committee and, broadly speaking, hold the first reading and conclude it. That is expected to take place next Tuesday," the head of the committee said.

Akkermann said everything should be finalized by mid-February. Just on Tuesday, he had stated the goal was to correct the error by the end of January.

She emphasized that the actual intent of the bill's sponsors was to establish a 5.5 percent gambling tax rate for games of chance conducted as remote gambling for the current year — something clearly stated in the bill's explanatory memorandum.

"The error occurred during the Ministry of Finance's editing of the gambling tax bill. We're fixing that now," the MP added, placing the blame squarely on ministry officials.

According to Akkermann, the most important thing is that culture and sports do not end up without additional funding. Both fields depend on gambling tax revenue.

echoed the same point in a press release, stating: "We're dealing with a textual error that has created real legal confusion. The intention of the law was never to stop taxing online casinos — on the contrary, the taxation of remote gambling was meant to continue, with the tax rate set to gradually decrease over time."

According to Tein, the issue is specific: during the legislative process, a restriction was introduced into the wording of the law that mistakenly excluded games of chance under the category of remote gambling from taxation. "This is not a substantive political shift or anyone's intention. It's a technical wording issue that made it into the final version and it now needs to be quickly corrected to reflect what the legislator actually intended," Tein explained.

According to the politician, it is encouraging that businesses have already shown a responsible attitude. "The Estonian Association of Gambling Operators and its member companies have indicated that they do not intend to take advantage of the current situation and will continue paying the tax as before. That's an important signal," Tein said.

Tein also confirmed that introducing a bill in the Riigikogu is the most direct way to address the error swiftly, so that the original intent of the law and the continuity of taxation can be restored by the end of February.

A clerical error in amendments to the Gambling Tax Act approved last December removed online casinos from taxation this year by using the term "skill games" and omitting "games of chance" in a key part of the text. A mistake that was missed by all links in the legislative drafting chain.

The article was updated to add comments by Tanel Tein.

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